Toyota building SCION buzz via the web

The auto co hopes to entice young consumers with grassroots marketing efforts.

Toyota Canada is hoping to attract new Canadian customers and change the auto-buying experience when it launches its SCION brand, which caters to youthful tastes and sensibilities, in Canada. Specifically, Toyota launched a new website, scionnation.ca, to build SCION buzz with the digerati.

Upcoming plans to reach the youth demo include grassroots-level marketing such as word-of-mouth, blogs and ads placed on youth-frequented sites. When SCION launched in the US in 2003, Toyota also used the discovery approach, letting viewers browse around and find the model at their own pace, using grassroots events and its website.

The three SCION vehicles – SCION tC, SCION xD and SCION xB – will arrive at Toyota dealers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in 2010, followed by other locations at a later date. Larry Hutchinson, director of Toyota Canada, says that the affordable and fuel-efficient model is in demand in Canada, and adds that about 70% of SCION buyers in the US are new to Toyota.